1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to displaying strengths of social relationships between users of a computerized network and more particularly to a method that normalizes network metrics from the perspective of the viewing user to produce relationship values representing strengths of social relationships between the viewing user and the other users.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the course of daily work, people make frequent connections to other people for many purposes, such as to gain information, advice, approval, make connections to other people, and so forth. Various systems exist that display and search for people and their information. Given that the most efficient social connections are those with people you know, there is an advantage in being able to distinguish people you know from people you do not know or to distinguish people with whom you have a strong relationship from those with which you have a weak relationship. Existing systems do not take advantage of these distinctions. The invention provides a mechanism for taking relationship information and making it available to the user as a personalized view of people in a system, and displays such information it in a straightforward and easy to understand way.